by A visit to Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee has been on both our radars for years, and it finally happened. Even after having had plenty of time to process it, I’m still not sure what to make of the experience.
The visit includes an iPad-guided tour of Elvis’ home, Graceland (which gets its own separate post), but then many, many exhibits about Elvis, his daughter Lisa Marie, people inspired by Elvis, his cars and airplanes, the Baz Luhrmann movie, etc, etc, etc. Some seemed relevant, some seemed a bit of a stretch, little was especially inspiring.
There are also several restaurants on site to choose from, lots of souvenir-purchasing opportunities (naturally), and you can even stay at the adjacent hotel or RV park!
I looked into the hotel and found it looking like any another hotel and not worth the price.
Likewise, the RV park was twice the rate I’m normally willing to pay and was not especially appealing, just a lot with RVs parked on an asphalt lot.
The biggest stunner for me was that it was how much the house tour component was a total zoo. There were people everywhere, and even though we had pre-purchased timed tickets, there was a lot of waiting with no understanding of why.
We stood in line for the shuttle to Graceland, and while we could see three parked shuttles, there was zero forward progress. We had enough time to pre-watch most of the iPad tour for the house!
When we were sat down for the seven minute film, we waited so long for it to begin I began to wonder if they didn’t realize they hadn’t pushed start.
All told, probably an hour of our visit was wasted with waiting for no obvious reason. The tour through the house and outbuildings only can run in one direction, and it was just a cattle call. We were stuck behind a professional tour group at one point, and at another by a visitor filming everything, even though video was not allowed (we saw him two hours later, still filming). When there was an opportunity, we dashed around them, but it definitely wore on our patience.
After the Graceland mansion, things improved with the Elvis museum part of the experience. The best part of the day was seeing so many of Elvis’ costumes on display. It’s jaw-dropping to see and even Doug declared them “fabulous.”
We are both glad we went and would recommend it, but it was a definitely a “one-and-done” attraction for us. In spite of the extensive exhibits, we didn’t really feel like we learned much about Elvis, and everything we did learn was sugar-coated. For instance, there were almost no pictures showing “fat Elvis,” zero information on his drug use, and nothing at all on Elvis’ divorce from Priscilla (or the fact that she was 14 when they met).
I left our tour of Sun Studios with songs to follow-up on, but left Graceland with nothing on my follow-up list at all.
We watched the Bax Luhrmann Elvis movie after our visit, but it was high on flash and low on content. I listened to Priscilla’s memoir, Elvis and Me (which I thought a bit fluffy and full of ridiculous giggles), and we’ve started listening to the biography Being Elvis: A Lonely Life by Ray Connolly so we can get some real intel, hopefully. (Those are all affiliate links.)
